Religion Past and Present
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Subject: Religious Studies
Edited by: Hans Dieter Betz, Don S. Browning†, Bernd Janowski and Eberhard Jüngel
Religion Past and Present (RPP) Online is the online version of the updated English translation of the 4th edition of the definitive encyclopedia of religion worldwide: the peerless Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart (RGG). This great resource, now at last available in English and Online, Religion Past and Present Online continues the tradition of deep knowledge and authority relied upon by generations of scholars in religious, theological, and biblical studies. Including the latest developments in research, Religion Past and Present Online encompasses a vast range of subjects connected with religion.
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Religion Past and Present (RPP) Online is the online version of the updated English translation of the 4th edition of the definitive encyclopedia of religion worldwide: the peerless Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart (RGG). This great resource, now at last available in English and Online, Religion Past and Present Online continues the tradition of deep knowledge and authority relied upon by generations of scholars in religious, theological, and biblical studies. Including the latest developments in research, Religion Past and Present Online encompasses a vast range of subjects connected with religion.
Subscriptions: see brill.com
Crime
(578 words)
[German Version]
I. The word crime appears in a wide range of contexts, both in technical (e.g. moral philosophy or history) and everyday usage; it is especially common in the usage of practical ethics. The term is defined more closely in the various fields of criminal law, both normative (criminal law dogmatics as the theory of positive criminal law, criminal policy) and empirical (criminology).
II. Normative criminal law commonly distinguishes between formal and material concepts of crime, although the exact boundary between them is a matter of deba…
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Religion Past and Present
Criminal Law
(3,505 words)
[German Version] I. Old Testament – II. History – III. German Criminal Law Today – IV. Penal Canon Law (Roman Catholic) – V. Islam
I. Old Testament Old Testament law (Law and legislation: II) emerged from three sources: (1) it reinforced mutual expectations based on norms of behavior by means of criminal ¶ laws supporting general prevention of criminal conduct; (2) it minimized violence by regulating conflicts through casuistic law (Law and jurisprudence: III) as the precursor of modern civil law, and (3) it regulated int…
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Religion Past and Present
Cripps, Arthur Shearly
(432 words)
[German Version] (Jun 10, 1869, Kent – Aug 1, 1952, Southern Rhodesia), Anglican priest, missionary and campaigner for African political and social rights in the settler-dominated society of colonial Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). An Anglo-Catholic (Anglo-Catholicism), 1901 Cripps was sent by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts to Mashonaland. Later he acquired over 7000 acres of land, where he built a church named Maronda Mashanu (“…
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Religion Past and Present
Crisis
(817 words)
[German Version] I. Ethics – II. Practical Theology
I. Ethics The Greek noun κρίσις/
krísis originally denoted the action derived from the verb κρίνειν/
krínein: (a) “sepa¶ ration, quarrel”; (b) “selection”; (c) “decision, judgment, verdict”; (d) “turning point (in a battle or disease)” (cf. also criticism, kairology). The adoption of the forensic sense in the LXX added a theological dimension to the term. In the NT,
krísis stands for the verdict of the judge, the court of judgment, and especially the eschatological Divine Judgment, the ultimate separ…
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Religion Past and Present
Crisis Cults
(350 words)
[German Version] Students of religion have accepted the ethnological term
crisis cult, introduced by La Barre in 1971, as a systematic hypernym for movements in non-Western societies which earlier 20th-century ethnology treated under such headings as apocalypticism, cargo cults, millenarianism/chiliasm, deliverance movements, revival movements (Revival/Revival movements), ghost dance, collective hysteria, nativism, peyote cult, prophetic revival movements, …
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Religion Past and Present
Crispin and Crispinian, Saints
(118 words)
[German Version] The feast of St. Crispin and St. Crispinian is observed on Oct 15. The veneration of their burial place is attested by a 6th-century church in Soissons, where (according to the legendary
Passio) they suffered martyrdom during the reign of Diocletian, after having made shoes for the poor without charge. In the 9th century, relics came to Osnabrück and they became that city's patron saints. Since the High Middle Ages, they have been venerated as the patron saints of shoemakers, tanners, and saddlers. Klaus Unterburger Bibliography Sources:
ActaSS Oct. XI, 1864, 495–540 Gre…
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Religion Past and Present
Cristiada, La
(293 words)
[German Version] (also known as the Cristero rebellion), an armed conflict (1926–1929) between the post-revolutionary Mexican government under Plutarco Elías Calles (1924–1928) and rebellious Catholics defending the freedom of the church against the state. They were called
Cristeros on account of their battle-cry “Viva ¶ Cristo Rey!” (“Long live Christ the King!”). The bishops announced a strike in respect of church services in protest against the laws enacted in 1926 that implemented the anti-ecclesiastical revolutionary …
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Religion Past and Present
Criteriology
(500 words)
[German Version] is the theory (the epitome of statements) of the necessary and sufficient conditions for the (given) presence of distinctions. We need a criteriology to carry out our praxis of distinction deliberately and responsibly – both for appropriate apprehension of distinctions already made (either through our own praxis or through processes for which we are not responsible), in other words, for our actions that construct symbols, and for our own appropri…
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Religion Past and Present
Critical Rationalism
(510 words)
[German Version] is a philosophy conceived by the Austrian philosopher K.R. Popper in the 1930s, initially as a theory of empirical epistemology, which was gradually expanded into an instrument of general rational problem solving. In it, Popper engaged critically with the epistemology (I) of I. Kant and with the Empiricism of the Vienna Circle. Characteristic for the critical-rational approach is the critique of the thesis that one can only speak of knowledge in the true sense if the object of knowledge in question is true with a cert…
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Religion Past and Present
Critical Theory
(1,635 words)
[German Version] I. Philosophy – II. Fundamental Theology – III. Practical Theology
I. Philosophy Critical theory is the designation for the philosophical program of the Frankfurt School, a group of philosophers and social scientists belonging to the Institut für Sozialforschung (Institute for Social Research) founded in 1923 in Frankfurt am Main. The term traces to an essay by M. Horkheimer,
Traditionelle und kritische Theorie (1937; ET: “Traditional and Critical Theory,” in:
idem, Critical Theory: Selected Essays, 1972) and was then adopted as the general c…
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Religion Past and Present
Criticism,
(467 words)
[German Version] from Greek κρίνειν/
krínein, “distinguish, decide, judge,” is methodical evaluation based on well-founded criteria. In everyday usage, the word is identified with negative assessment; in philosophical usage, however, it denotes the weighing of both positive and negative values and the discussion of validity claims. The ancient Greeks already distinguished epistemological, practical (political), and philological concepts of criticism (Pre-Socr…
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Religion Past and Present
Croatia
(900 words)
[German Version] The Republic of Croatia covers an area of 56,542 km2; in 2004 it had an estimated population of 4,500,000. The 2001 census reported an ethnic makeup of 89.6% Croats, 4.5% Serbs, 0.5% Muslims (Bosniaks), 0.4% Hungarians, 0.3% Slovenians, and 4.7% from other minorities. Its capital is Zagreb. Dalmatia was home to Jewish communities from the time of the Romans into the modern period; in the rest of Croatia, this continuity was interrupted from the 15th to the 18th century until new communities formed as a result of …
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Religion Past and Present
Croce, Benedetto
(297 words)
[German Version] (Feb 25, 1866, Pescasseroli – Nov 20, 1952, Naples). Along with Giovanni Gentile, Croce was a leading representative of Italian neo-idealism. He served as Minister of Education in 1920/1921 and 1925 wrote an anti-fascist manifesto; from 1943 to 1947 he was president of the reestablished Italian Liberal Party. Following G.W.F. Hegel, Croce developed a “philosophy of spirit” that understands itself as absolute historicism and asserts that what is r…
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Religion Past and Present
Crocius
(392 words)
[German Version]
1. Ludwig (Mar 29, 1586, Laasphe – Dec 7, 1655, Bremen). After studying at Herborn, Marburg, and Basel (Dr.theol. 1609), the Reformed theologian Ludwig Crocius became a pastor in Bremen and professor at the Gymnasium Illustre, of which he later became headmaster. With M. Martini and Heinrich Isselburg, he participated in the Synod of Dort as a delegate from the Bremen church. He was a prominent representative of the school of Bremen theologians fou…
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Religion Past and Present
Cromwell, Oliver
(577 words)
[German Version] (Apr 25, 1599, Huntingdon – Sep 3, 1658, London) was born into a relatively humble branch of a well-connected landholding family in Huntingdonshire and was elected MP for the county town in 1628. Following his defeat in a disputed election of a lecturer and preacher for the town Cromwell moved to nearby St. Ives, where he continued as a yeoman farmer during the 1630s. His career took off following the outbreak of the Civil Wars, when his military …
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Religion Past and Present
Cromwell, Thomas
(235 words)
[German Version] (1485?, Putney – Jul 28, 1540, London). Born into humble circumstances, after a turbulent youth Cromwell acquired enough legal knowledge (probably self-taught) to find employment as a solicitor. Around 1520 he came to work for Cardinal T. Wolsey; in 1523 he became a member of Parliament. After Wolsey's fall in 1529, he continued to pursue his own career. Made a member of the royal council by Henry VIII in 1531, he consolidated his position…
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Religion Past and Present
Crosby, Frances Jane
(193 words)
[German Version] (Fanny; Mar 24, 1820, Southeast, NY – Feb 12, 1915, Bridgeport, CT), hymnwriter. Crosby was the only child of John and Mercy Crosby. Blinded in infancy, Crosby moved to New York City in 1835 into the home for the blind, where her poetic and musical talents were nurtured. After completing her education, Crosby became a teacher at the institution. In 1858, she resigned. After publishing three books of poetry as well as lyrics for cantatas and secul…
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Religion Past and Present
Cross/Crucifixion
(4,480 words)
[German Version] I. The Cross in Non-Christian Religions – II. Crucifixion in Antiquity – III. The Crucifixion of Christ – IV. Church History – V. Dogmatic Theology – VI. The Cross in Modern Art
I. The Cross in Non-Christian Religions From prehistoric times to the present, various forms of the cross have appeared in many non-Christian cultures and religions, used both as a religious symbol and as an ornamental design (the boundaries are fluent). It is a primal human symbol. As such it is polysemous and has …
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Religion Past and Present
Cross, Exaltation of the
(359 words)
[German Version] (also Triumph of the Cross). The liturgical observance of the Exaltation of the Cross, still celebrated in the Orthodox Church and Roman Catholic Church on Sep 14, goes back to the veneration of the relics (II, 3) of the cross after the “finding ¶ of the true cross” (
inventio verae crucis) at Calvary in the 4th century. The
Itinerarium of the pilgrim Egeria (c. 384) describes an annual feast on Sep 14 in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre (Anastasis), commemorating the finding and exaltation of the cross at Golgotha. In the l…
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Religion Past and Present
Cross, Feasts of the
(266 words)
[German Version] Most of the feasts of the cross recall the (putative) finding of the historical cross of Jesus, which was first celebrated on Sep 14, 335, at the consecration of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. There is evidence for a rite of the Exaltation of the Cross (Cross, Exaltation of the) in Byzantium as early as the 7th century. This rite was borrowed by the West in the same century, probably following the recapture of the cross by Emperor Heracl…
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Religion Past and Present
Crossley, Hugh T.
(111 words)
[German Version] (1850, King City, Ontario – May 2, 1934, Toronto, Ontario), Canadian Methodist minister. Crossley formed one half of what was probably – in terms of converts made – the most successful Canadian evangelistic team ever. Together with J. Hunter, Crossley conducted meetings in smaller communities throughout the USA and Canada. Altogether, Crossley ¶ led 400 revival campaigns over the course of his 26-year career. As a result of his preaching, over 200,000 people, including Canada's first Prime Minister, Sir John A. Macdonald, professed a conversion to Christ. Kevin B.Ke…
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Religion Past and Present
Cross, Orders and Congregations of the Holy
(1,136 words)
[German Version] I. Orders of Men – II. Orders of Women
I. Orders of Men
1. Generally speaking, the terms Cruciferi, Crocigeri, and Cruciati refer to members of hospital orders (Hospitallers) and various other orders of knights (Knights, Orders of) whose clothing is adorned with the sign of the cross. More specifically, they are applied to the members of numerous congregations of canons regular that originated in the period of the Crusades, such as the Canons Regular of the…
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Religion Past and Present
Crossroads
(414 words)
[German Version] The construction, extension, and maintenance of roadway networks correlate with the emergence of settlements, towns, and cities (Town and city) and are among the early achievements of advanced civilizations. In ancient Greece, a dense and easily usable network of roads linked city states separated by impassable mountains. Crossroads were often marked by herms intended both to protect against the risks of travel and to serve as landmarks. The …
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Religion Past and Present
Crotus Rubeanus
(210 words)
[German Version] (Johann Jäger; 1480, Dornheim near Arnstadt, Thüringen – c. 1545, Halberstadt), German humanist. He enrolled at the University of Erfurt in 1498, where he joined the circle of humanists around Mutianus Rufus, and lived in the same students' hostel as Luther. He became the mentor of U. v. Hutten around 1503, and earned his M.A. in 1507. He was the principal author of the first section of the
Epistolae obscurorum virorum , which was written in Fulda in 1515. In 1517, he completed his Dr. theol. in Bologna, where he became a…
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Religion Past and Present
Crowther, Samuel Ajayi
(565 words)
[German Version] (c. 1806, Osogun, Nigeria – Dec 31, 1891, Lagos, Nigeria), the first black African bishop in modern times. Enslaved in 1821 at the age of about 15, he was on board a Brazilian brig for export when it was captured by the British anti-slavery squadron off the coast of Lagos. He arrived in Freetown in 1822, where he was educated by Church Missionary Society (CMS) missionaries. In 1841 he accompanied the British Niger Expedition and became known thro…
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Religion Past and Present
Cruciger
(268 words)
[German Version]
1. Caspar (the Elder; Jan 1, 1504, Leipzig – Nov 16, 1548, Wittenberg) studied in Leipzig (1513–1523) and Wittenberg, and became preacher and schoolmaster in Magdeburg in 1525. Returning to Wittenberg in 1528, he earned his doctorate in 1533. As professor of theology and collaborator of Luther (Bible revision, printing of sermons, edition of Luther's works) and Melanchthon (Disputations, Religious; Augsburg Interim), he ¶ sparked off a dispute over justification in 1536, when he called for repentance
and good deeds. He played a part in the reformation of L…
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Religion Past and Present
Crüger, Johann
(414 words)
[German Version] (Apr 9, 1598, Groß Breesen near Guben – Feb 23, 1662, Berlin) was the most important Protestant creator of song melodies. The history of the hymnal is also indebted to him for essential impulses. After studying theology and music in Wittenberg, he was cantor at the Nikolai Church in Berlin from 1622 until his death. In addition to writings on music theory (
Synopsis musica 1630, 21654), there are a considerable number of compositions (including settings of the Magnificat for two choirs and soloist parts accompanied by general bass:
Meditationum musicarum Paradisus sec…
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Religion Past and Present
Crusades
(4,060 words)
[German Version] I. History – II. Literature – III. From the Muslim Perspective – IV. Effects on the Jews
I. History
1. Concept The Middle Ages did not develop a clear term for the crusades. The word itself is only documented at a late point. What research calls the crusades in the narrower sense of the word are the crusades which were begun at the end of the 11th century by Latin Christendom to reconquer or defend Jerusalem and the Holy Land. The conquest of Jerusalem in 1099 by the Christ…
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Religion Past and Present
Crusius, Christian August
(183 words)
[German Version] (Jan 10, 1715, Leuna – Oct 18, 1775, Leipzig) was appointed adjunct professor of philosophy in Leipzig in 1744 and professor of theology at the same university in 1750. As a philosopher, Crusius gave anti-Wolffianism (C. Wolff) its definitive form. By distinguishing between epistemic or ideal causes and real causes, he was able to contest the ontological proof of the existence of God, as well as Leibniz-Wolffian determinism and the notion of a preestablished harmony (G.W. Leibniz). As a theologian, ¶ Crusius was inspired by J. Cocceius and J.A. Bengel …
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Religion Past and Present
Cruz, Juana Inés de la
(179 words)
[German Version] (Sor Juana; Dec 2, 1648/1651?, San Miguel Nepantla, Mexico – Apr 17, 1695, Mexico City), OSH. The Creole Juana Ramírez de Asbaje, born out of wedlock, rose, thanks to her outstanding intelligence, to become a lady at court. She had a close friendship with the viceroy Maria Luisa Manrique de Lara, who had Cruz's works published in Spain beginning in 1689. From 1669, the encyclopedically educated autodidact was able to give life to her extraordinar…
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Religion Past and Present
Crypto-Calvinists
(352 words)
[German Version] is the name that was once given to those persons who originated from or were active in the areas dominated by the Lutheran confession and who, according to the judgment of confessionally Lutheran theologians of the late 16th century, advocated doctrinal views or practical approaches that were intented to undermine the status of the Lutheran denomination by secretly bringing it closer to Reformed or Calvinist positions. In scholarly publications, …
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Religion Past and Present
Cuba
(1,016 words)
[German Version] is the largest, most westerly and most thickly populated island in the Caribbean. Cuba's location between the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean gives the island strategic advantages. The republic encompasses 114,524 km2 with a population of 1,051,000. 70% of the total population are white, 17% are of mixed race, 12% black, and 1% Asiatic. Religious affiliation is difficult to ascertain: 39.6% are Catholics, 1.4% are Protestants (Anglicans, Methodists, Presbyterians, and Pentecostals), 48.7% b…
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Religion Past and Present
Cuius regio, eius religio
(231 words)
[German Version] (“whose region, his religion”) is the slogan-like abbreviation of the state-church system in the old Empire characterized by the
ius reformandi for territorial princes created in the Religious Peace of Augsburg (1555). According to this, rulers are justified in determining the confession in their territories, although they were restricted to the Roman Catholic or the Augsburg Confession. In addition, there were a number of special regulations, for imperial cit¶ ies, for example. Those not of the regional confession were granted the right to emigrate (
Ius emigrand…
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Religion Past and Present
Cullmann, Oscar
(341 words)
[German Version] (Feb 25, 1902, Strasbourg – Jan 16, 1999, Chamonix) was professor of New Testament studies and Early Church history and an ecumenicist. After studying and teaching in Strasbourg, Cullmann became professor of New Testament studies there in 1930. From 1938 to 1972, he held the chair of NT studies and Early Church history at Basel. In addition, he held professorships in Strasbourg (1945–1948) and Paris (1948–1968). In 1972, he was elected a member of the Académie des sciences morales et politiques. After beginning as a literary critic with works on the pse…
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Religion Past and Present
Cult Authors
(489 words)
[German Version]
I. The term cult authors refers to a group of authors who collected and explicated the primary documents of the cults of the Greeks and Romans (rituals, calendars, cultic laws, priestly regulations, protocols, etc.). The group, which cannot be easily differentiated from local historians, periegetes, antiquarians, and theologians, includes about 100 authors (5th cent. bce to the end of the 4th cent. ce). Their themes and titles are: a.
On Days (Gk
perí hēmerón),
On Months, On Feasts; b.
On Sacrifices (Gk
perí thysión),
On Mysteries, On Dedications, On Purification…
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Religion Past and Present
Cult-Historical School
(561 words)
[German Version] It is not really appropriate to speak of the cult-historical school as a single historical entity; at best, one can refer to various research milieus or working groups, which have translated leading motifs of the cult-historical method into practice on a broad basis and which have, thus, stamped scholarship in general. The closest to a clearly defined “school” are – apart from the Cambridge Ritualists of the early 20th century – those initiative…
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Religion Past and Present
Cultic Objects in Palestine
(545 words)
[German Version] (Bronze Age to Late Antiquity). Power-radiating objects, such as scepters or ceremonial weapons, or implements needed to perform cultic procedures, such as libations and incense offerings, but in which there is no inherent magical power, can be designated cultic objects. As such, they have been attested in Palestine since pre-historic times and found use in the official and the private cult, were made of the most varied materials, and mostly preserved …
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Religion Past and Present
Cult Sites (in Palestine)
(502 words)
[German Version] In addition to the temple in Palestine and northern Arabia, there were open-air sanctuaries, demarcated sites whose inventory regularly included an
asherah , a holy tree, and a
massebah, a holy stone, at least since the late Neolithic era. As its Old Testament designation,
asherah, indicates, the tree represents the goddess, while the
massebah was considered the locus of the presence of the god (thus Beth-El, Bethyl [Bethel]; cf. Gen 28:18–19a).
Masseboth/bethyls could be left in their natural state, decorated with reliefs, sculpted geometrica…
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Religion Past and Present
Cultural Anthropology/Social Anthropology
(811 words)
[German Version] I. Religious Studies – II. Natural Sciences
I. Religious Studies Ethnology in the German-speaking realm corresponds roughly to cultural anthropology in the USA and social anthropology in the British realm of influence. Different disciplinary classification in the three scientific regions has led to specific configurations. Common to all is the object of investigation: human culture and comparison of (as an ideal, all) individual cultures. The Ame…
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Religion Past and Present
Cultural Catholicism
(451 words)
[German Version] Formed in chronological proximity to cultural Protestantism, cultural Catholicism first occurred in 1910 in progressive Reform Catholicism as a polemical term for the group centered around the journal
Hochland (Highland) and its editor K. Muth, which was moderate in terms of church policy, and for the “reconcilication of the (Roman Catholic) church and modern culture” in view of Catholic “inferiority” desired by H. Schell and A. Ehrhard and also popularized in the series “Kultur und …
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Religion Past and Present
Cultural Criticism
(568 words)
[German Version] Though the earliest beginnings of faith and knowledge already permit the perception, in retrospect, of an element of cultural criticism, J.-J. Rousseau was the first to bring the phenomenon to life. The 18th century underwent a previously unknown assessment of “civilization” and its claims that were thenceforth considered objects of human production and control. The major themes of Rousseau's cultural criticism: The
alienation of society and the
suppression of individuality extend the Enlightenment instrument of criticism to the process of …
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Religion Past and Present
Cultural Elites and the Church
(773 words)
[German Version] In a broad sense, the educational dilemma of the church is the consequence of the modern tension between religion and science, first apparent in the 18th century. In 1799 F.D.E. Schleiermacher defended religion from its cultured despisers, who had enthusiastically adopted aesthetic and moral forms of self-assurance while educating the general populace in a religion to which they themselves were “totally indifferent” (Schleiermacher, 32). As the middle class grew during the 19th century, this ¶ tendency led to education in a cultural religion indep…
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Religion Past and Present
Cultural Evolution
(389 words)
[German Version] is gaining in significance in the description of culture. It not a matter of social Darwinism (Darwinism: IV) nor of a simple transfer of the principles of biological evolution, neither analogy nor parallelism, but structural isomorphy, which depicts relations of various levels to one another. One can speak of a general theory of evolution as a positive heuristic for physical, biological and social processes. A plausible model must describe the s…
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Religion Past and Present
Cultural History
(434 words)
[German Version] The composite term cultural history can be first identified in the second half of the 18th century (Johann Christoph Adelung; Hermann Dietrich Hegewisch; Karl Ludwig Heinrich Pölitz). Authors of historical works appropriated the term in order to refer programmatically to the expansion of the subject of history beyond court and church concerns to the scopes of experience of middle class life (such as commerce, transportation, education, etc.). As …
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Religion Past and Present
Cultural Protestantism
(913 words)
[German Version] Despite intensive historical research, the origins of the term cultural Protestantism have been identified only in broad outline. Originally it was not a self-designation but a polemical term used by others, reflecting the florescence of cultural semantics (Culture: II) in the late 19th and early 20th century. In all European societies, the widespread sense of a crisis of modernity, the cultural pessimism rife among the bourgeoisie, and the relat…
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Religion Past and Present